'THE FOUNDER'........THE FAST FOOD & THE FURIOUS......

The Founder (2016)   The rampant schizophrenia of this movie should have sunk it.......it never truly gets a handle, insight or any discernible point of view on the character of Ray Kroc, the business trailblazer who turned the McDonald brothers little hamburger stand into a global empire and a touchstone of American iconography........

             Fortunately for the movie, it's anchored by Michael Keaton's portrayal of Kroc......Keaton, the most charismatic, spellbinding of actors, puts all his skills on display as he subtly morphs Kroc from sympathetic striver to retail swashbuckler and finally to cold-blooded, dead eyed corporate pirate.......

              If director John Lee Hancock and writer Robert Siegel have any overview opinions of Kroc's remarkable journey, they keep it to themselves. Keaton barrels on, from one version of Kroc to the next.......and the movie follows along, adjusting itself to the pitch of Keaton's  work,  never finding a voice of its own. In its final third, the film settles for becoming a sort of a downbeat thriller, with the hapless, suckered McDonald brothers (Nick Offerman, John Carrol Lynch) finally outwitted and undone by the now completely reptilian Kroc.......

               Not for a minute could we swallow the film's Act One, (albeit the most entertaining part).....in which Hancock applies the same whitewash to Kroc as he did to Walt Disney in "Saving Mr.Banks" (with Tom Hanks doing Disney the way Walt envisioned himself in his warm 'n fuzzy intros to "The Wonderful World Of Disney" TV episodes)   Sorry......but we doubt either Kroc or Disney started out as eagerly likable as puppy dogs......more likely they were rampaging, cuttthroat sons of bitches from day one.......

              To be fair to Hancock and Hanks, they had to craft their film under the ever watchful eye of the Disney corporation itself, so "Saving Mr.Banks" could never break out of its feel-good propaganda straight jacket.  Keaton, of course, labors under no such constraints........as the film moves out of its origin story into the grueling ups and downs of Kroc's empire building, Keaton's unafraid to slowly but surely calibrate Kroc into a ruthless monster.  By the time Kroc gets around to castrating the McDonald brothers, you''re left wondering how they foolishly ever believed Kroc's "handshake" deal would give them a slice of the company's voluminous profits.

               As a movie, "The Founder" stays unfocused and all over the place........but Michael Keaton's performance........like a quarter-pounder and fries, we're lovin' it.  He's the only actor who could do remakes of "Death Of A Salesman" and "Citizen Kane" and make us feel for both characters.  For him, we'll order 3 stars to go.....(***).....and super-size the fries to watch it with....(don't breathe a word of this post to our cardiologist....)